Recent content by slothrop

Second year Cascades, do I trim all of it but a few shoots? What is the recommendation? I'm curious to see what it would look like if I just let the whole thing grow.

Well, I can assure you that Cascade can grow well in MN. Here's my second year Cascade plant from today which looks like it's about to take over to neighborhood. Didn't have any luck with Chinook, however.

I planted 4 rhizomes this year one Cascade and three Chinook, all the Chinook failed but I just harvested about half of the Cascade and it came out to about a pound and a half wet. I am really pleasantly surprised since I read that first year plants put out very little if anything.

Thanks for the info. I think the rhizome that shot up after 3 days raised my expectations for all the others, I'll try to exercise some patience.

Ok thanks, I'm just trying to gauge whether or not the number of buds determines the growth success. Maybe I'll try some sort of root stimulant. Yeah I emailed them to see what they say, waiting to hear back.

Did all of your rhizomes have buds on them when they arrived? Mine didn't other than the Cascade, they just look like sticks with a string of a root hanging off.

I ordered, received and planted two more Chinook rhizomes from freshops. They have been in the ground about a week and they have not sprouted at all, my original Chinook has done nothing either after about a month, so that's a total of three that have possibly failed but the one Cascade is...

I'll probably order a couple more just in case, if I don't need them I'll secretly plant them in my neighbor's yard.

I planted one each Cascade and Chinook rhizome, the Cascade popped out of the ground after about three days but the Chinook hasn't done anything after about three weeks. I dug up the Chinook and it hasn't sprouted at all, is it safe to assume it has gone bad? Just wondering if I should...

I made this "pseudo-pils" kit from NB and it's not bad. http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/VictoriousPrimoPseudo-Pils.pdf

I didn't consider changing yeast strains, I liked the flavor so I thought changing the yeast would have too much effect. That's why I love the sport of homebrew, so many variables. What yeast do you use for ales? As far as the Belgian and Victory I could be wrong but I think read somewhere...

I've been brewing for about the same amount of time as you and I get my kits from NB and they've turned out very good. The main differences I notice are that I use tap water, I don't make a starter, I primary for 2-3 weeks then secondary (to free up the primary) for a couple weeks.

Great, thanks for the info! I was worried it was infected.

So I had a batch of NB's Sinistral Warrior extract kit in the primary for almost four weeks and finally got around to transferring it. I opened the lid yesterday and took a whiff it gave me a burning in the nose like when you eat a bunch of wasabi. Is that a bad thing and what does it...

Thanks for all the advice, it is an extract batch a partial mash may be an option. I remember reading about maltodextrin in the Palmer book and I'll check it again but when do you add it and does it add a lot of sweetness? I want to avoid that if at all possible.